Dive Brief:

• Student loan debt increased in 2013, but not as quickly as it had before 2010, according to a Brookings Institution report.
• While the average incomes of borrowers dropped, the decrease was slight enough that the percentage of income devoted to loan payments stayed the same.
• The bottom line, according to the institution: While the rising costs of college should be challenged, Americans with student loan debt are no worse off than they were 20 years ago.

Dive Insight:

The Brookings Institution report follows up on its June 2014 report on student loan debt, which analyzed figures from 1989 through 2010. The new report looks at 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances data, released recently by the Federal Reserve Board, which, in general, was similar to the 2010 data and extended trends that had played out prior to 2010. The three main trends: About one quarter of the rise in student debt since 1989 is due to increases in education attainment, the income increases over the lifetimes of college graduates kept pace with their increased debt, and student loan payments stayed the same or decreased since 1992.